BookBlogAdina Levin's weblog. For conversation about books I've been reading, social software, and other stuff too.Absurdly bad bill in CA Assembly threatens to close public GIS data- March 31, 2008 A ridiculously bad bill in the California state assembly threatens to exempt Geographic Information System (GIS) data from the California Public Records Act. AB1978, sponsored by Assembly Member Jose Solorio (D-Orange County) was in response to a court ruling that declared that Santa Clara County's base map information is public data. Government GIS data is a valuable source of information for planning, environmental action, and many other areas of public interest. Closing this down is..http://alevin.com/weblog/archives/002029.html The accessibility of online forums for public meetings- March 30, 2008 People often raise concerns about accessibility when the idea is raised to use internet technology for public meetings. In my opinion, perceptions are lagging reality. In the latest 2006 large-scale internet study by the Pew Internet and American Life Project, 73% of US adults had internet access. The percent in the San Francisco Bay area was 83% back in 2003. A decade ago, there were serious accessibility concerns. Today, internet access is mainstream. Physical attendance to a meeting..http://alevin.com/weblog/archives/002028.html GreenDevCamp is back on- March 30, 2008 After a few days of seeking new sponsorship, GreenDevCamp is back on, at the Green Building Center in Redwood City. This will be for brainstorming, exploring, producing and launching technology and practices aimed at Green Technology and Policies. Looks like a lot of fun.http://alevin.com/weblog/archives/002027.html El Camino planning session lost in the weeds- March 30, 2008 On Thursday, I went to a meeting of the Menlo Park El Camino citizen advisory board. The consultancy hired by the city presented the material they were planning to use in the community feedback meeting this upcoming Thursday. It is supposed to be about defining a vision for Menlo Park. It skipped the vision stuff, and dived down into the details of implementing development plans. To the extent that there was any vision, it was concealed and coded. People were far to polite or politic to...http://alevin.com/weblog/archives/002026.html Open government geekery- March 24, 2008 So, is it legal to use a web forum or internet chat for official public discussion in California The plot thickens. I asked informally, through city council folk in two Bay Area cities, and got conflicting responses from city attorneys. One says it's illegal. Another says it's permitted but recommends that officials use the tools cautiously. And neither has provided citations in case law or administrative ruling. Point to point email is explicitly prohibited under California's Brown Act,.http://alevin.com/weblog/archives/002025.html Social software as a collaborative game- March 24, 2008 Ralph Koster gave an interesting talk at etech about lessons from game design for social software. There were several things that seemed right and useful. challenge. Overcoming challenges and learning are key to fun. Games are designed to provide a successive series of challenges. By contrast, the software design paradigm is focused on ease of use. This is right for an ecommerce site that a user uses once, but is wrong for applications that people use and learn over time. contextual...http://alevin.com/weblog/archives/002024.html |